Youth Tour in Washington D.C.

Amanda Dupuis of Burlington, and Ashley Tinguely of Fort Madison, represented Access Energy Cooperative as part of a group of 40 Iowa high schools students from 24 Iowa electric cooperatives on the 2011 Iowa Electric Cooperatives’ Annual Youth Tour of Washington, D.C.

This was the 47th annual youth tour event organized by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which had record attendance of 1,554 including Iowa’s 40 students that participated in the June 11-17 gathering.
All Iowa students met as a group with Iowa Sens. Grassley and Harkin, in addition to breaking into groups to meet with the representative for each of their specific districts in the U.S. House of Representatives. Students asked the senators and representatives questions about the nation’s worst ever oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a struggling economy, concerns about the nation’s debt which some economists have said is unsustainable, nutrition at public schools and quality of education.Answers and solutions about the issues varied among the congressional delegation, but there was a common thread on energy and environmental policies of doing what’s best for the environment without harming the economy, which was similar to what students heard last year.

In addition to meeting with the members of Congress that serve them, students also had time to explore the memorials, monuments and other attractions of the nation’s capital during their visit paid for by electric co-ops like Access Energy Cooperative, that participate in the program.